00:00In the run-up to the General Election, I set out the crucial first steps in our economic
00:10plans to deliver economic stability so we can grow our economy and keep taxes, inflation
00:18and mortgages as low as possible. And that commitment stands. I emphasised this commitment
00:25in a meeting with the Governor of the Bank of England on Friday, and I will do the same
00:29when I meet the Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility this week.
00:34These institutions are guarantors of our economic stability, and I will not be playing games
00:40at their expense. Nowhere is decisive reform needed more urgently than in the case of our
00:46planning system. Planning reform has become a byword for political timidity in the face
00:52of vested interests and a graveyard of economic ambition. Our antiquated planning system leaves
00:58too many important projects tied up for years and years in red tape before shovels even
01:05get in the ground. We promised to put planning reform at the centre of our political argument,
01:12and we did. We said we would grasp the nettle of planning reform, and we are doing so. Today
01:19I can tell you that that work is underway. Over the weekend, I met with the Prime Minister
01:25and the Deputy Prime Minister to agree the urgent action needed to fix our planning system.
01:30Today, alongside the Deputy Prime Minister, I am taking immediate action to deliver this
01:37Labour Government's mission to kick-start economic growth, and to take the urgent steps
01:42necessary to build the infrastructure that we need, including one and a half million
01:47homes in the next five years. First of all, it will still be in the first instance up
01:53to local communities and local authorities to decide where housing is built, but we will
01:58bring back those mandatory housing targets, so the answer cannot always be no. So it will
02:03be up to local communities to decide where the housing is built, but it has to be built.
02:08If the answer is always no, we will continue as we are, and continuing as we are means
02:12living standards continuing to decline, and it means public services continuing to deteriorate.
02:18I am not willing to accept that status quo, and so we have got to get Britain building,
02:23and we have got to ensure that families can get on the housing ladder, because it links
02:26to the second part of your question, of how home ownership is going backwards. It has
02:32gone backwards in the last few years. Britain today has got lower home ownership than it
02:39should do, and the Labour Party and this Labour Government want to be the party of home ownership.
02:44First of all, on HS2, I was really clear in opposition that we are not going to make
02:49any promises without saying where the money is going to come from. That is not going to
02:52change now that I am Chancellor of the Exchequer. I am not going to make any commitments without
02:56being able to say where the money is going to come from.
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